Parnas said he is speaking out because he is afraid of William Barr

Rudy Giuliani associate Lev Parnas said he was giving media interviews about his role in President Trump's attempts to convince Ukrainian officials to announce an investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden because he wanted to protect himself from Attorney General William Barr. Parnas made that claim in an interview with MSNBC host Rachel Maddow, the second part of which aired Thursday night. Trump, Parnas said, was made more powerful “when he got William Barr.

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  Lev Parnas: Rick Perry said he told Ukrainian president aid was contingent on Biden investigation

  The Week
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  Former Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker on Nancy Pelosi calling William Barr a rogue attorney general

  FOX News Videos

Lying Liz

Ever since she began explaining how her Medicare for all plan would be funded, and how she would pass it, Elizabeth Warren has been sinking. Ahead of last week's debate, her camp leaked a story that her friend Bernie Sanders met with her in 2018 to discuss plans for 2020, and that at this meeting, Sanders had said that a woman could not win the presidency. Leaking this in the hours before a debate guaranteed that Warren would be asked a question about it by the moderators of the CNN debate.

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  The Iowa Caucuses Are In 17 Days. What’s Going On In The Early States?

  FiveThirtyEight
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  The Sanders campaign looked into whether Warren could serve as vice president and treasury secretary at the same time, according to report

  Business Insider

Why Russia Doesn't Like (Or Have) Many Aircraft Carriers

Historically a land power, the Soviet Union grappled with the idea of a large naval aviation arm for most of its history, eventually settling on a series of hybrid aircraft carriers. Big plans for additional ships died with the Soviet collapse, but Russia inherited one large aircraft carrier at the end of the Cold War—that remains in service today. Although many of the problems that wracked the naval aviation projects of the Soviet Union remain today, the Russian navy nevertheless sports one of the more active aircraft carriers in the world.

Off-duty Hong Kong police officer arrested for supporting protests

An off-duty Hong Kong police officer was arrested along with seven other people on Friday as they tried to put pro-democracy posters on a footbridge, police said. It's the first known case of a police officer being apprehended for supporting the massive demonstrations that have led to more than 6,500 arrests in the past seven months. The officer, 31, and the seven other people aged 14 to 61, were arrested at 3:00 am on Friday in Tuen Mun, a district in northwest Hong Kong.

The TSA apologized after an agent pulled a Native American passenger's braid and said "giddyup!" during a pat down

Molly Riley/Reuters Native American woman Tara Houska says a TSA agent grabbed her braids, whipped them like reins and said "giddyup" while she was going through security at the Minneapolis airport on Monday. A TSA official apologized to Houska for the incident, and released a statement saying "improper behavior is taken seriously" by the agency. The Transportation Security Administration was forced to issue an apology on Tuesday after a Native American woman described on Twitter a humiliating experience going through security at the Minneapolis-St.

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  TSA agents arrest man with gun at Newark airport; first one of the year

  WABC – NY
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  TSA Apologizes After Airport Agent Snaps Native Woman's Braids And Says, 'Giddy Up!'

  HuffPost

Iran's supreme leader slams 'clown' Trump, says Iran's missile strikes showed 'the hand of God'

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, led Friday prayers at a mosque in Tehran on Friday for the first time since 2012, trying to rally support among intertwined crises facing his government. On the foreign front, punishing U.S. sanctions have harmed Iran's economy and the Trump administration's killing of Iran's top general brought the U.S. and Tehran to the brink of war. Domestically, Iranians already angry over a hike in fuel prices took to the streets this week to demand justice and accountability for the Revolutionary Guard's downing of a Ukrainian jetliner, killing 176 people, most of them Iranian.

• Trump has run out of options and is asking US allies for help with Iran, but they've already abandoned him

  Business Insider
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  Trump warns Iranian supreme leader who called him a 'clown' to be 'very careful with his words'

  USA TODAY

Was the Taal Volcano eruption large enough to influence the climate?

The eruption, which began on Jan. 12, 2020, has forced more than 125,000 people to evacuate the Philippine province of Batangas, where the volcano is located. During the height of the eruption, a large plume of searing hot volcanic ash blossomed approximately 50,000 feet, about 9.5 miles, into the atmosphere, with some materials making it into the stratosphere, according to observations from NASA. The eruption was accompanied by incredible displays of volcanic lightning, which made for breathtaking video footage, fountains of scalding lava and more than 400 earthquakes.

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  Filipinos salvage belongings as volcano rumbles

  Reuters Videos
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  Volcanic Ash Turns Pineapples Grey in the Philippines as Scientists Monitor Taal

  Inside Edition CBS

Spain's Balearic Islands crack down on alcohol-fuelled holidays

Spain's Balearic Islands passed a bill Friday aimed at clamping down on alcohol-fuelled holidays in the Mediterranean archipelago which bans happy hours when drinks are offered a discount and open bars. "This is the first law adopted in Europe which restricts the sale and promotion of alcohol in certain touristic areas," the regional government of the Balearic Islands which have long been a magnet for young German and British tourists, who often drink heavily and enjoy rowdy late-night clubbing. The restrictions will apply to three areas with a reputation for excess: San Antoni on the island of Ibiza and El Arenal and Magaluf -- which has been nicknamed "Shagaluf" because of its reputation for drunken casual sex -- on Mallorca, the largest of the Balearic's four islands.

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  Spain’s Balearic Islands cracking down on pub crawls and happy hours

  PA Media: World News
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  Spain's Magaluf and Ibiza crack down on booze-fuelled tourists

  Reuters

Alan Dershowitz and Ken Starr join Trump impeachment defense team

The legal team representing President Trump in his Senate impeachment trial will reportedly include some familiar faces, especially for regular viewers of Fox News: Ken Starr, the former independent counsel who led the Whitewater investigation into President Bill Clinton, and Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor who has represented many controversial defendants. Starr is a Fox News contributor. Dershowitz is a frequent guest on Trump's favorite cable news network.

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  Can impeachment be fixed?

  The Week
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  Should 2020 Democrats recuse themselves from impeachment trial?

  FOX News Videos

SUV on grounds of Beijing's Forbidden City sparks outrage

A Chinese woman sparked social media outrage in her country by posting photos of herself and a friend with a Mercedes-Benz on the grounds of Beijing's Forbidden City. The reaction prompted an apology from the management of China's 600-year-old former imperial palace. Vehicles have been banned since 2013 to protect the cultural dignity of the vast site and its hundreds of historic buildings, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

'You have not seen anything yet,' climate activist Greta says ahead of Davos

Swedish activist Greta Thunberg marched with 10,000 protesters in the Swiss city of Lausanne on Friday and said "you have not seen anything yet" before some head to Davos next week to challenge the global financial elite to fight climate change. "So, we are now in a new year and we have entered a new decade and so far, during this decade, we have seen no sign whatsoever that real climate action is coming and that has to change,” Thunberg said in a speech in Lausanne. Hundreds will take trains over the weekend and then march to Klosters near Davos, the annual gathering of world political and business leaders that Thunberg is attending for the second year in a row and will take part in two panel events.

Reuters poll: Sanders climbs, now tied with Biden among registered voters

Sen. Bernie Sanders has been steadily climbing in popularity this year and is now tied with former Vice President Joe Biden for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination among registered voters, according to a Reuters/Ipsos national poll.

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  Joe Biden's Poll Numbers Are Steady, but Are They Immovable?

  The New York Times
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  Former Trump official: 'Markets would prefer a Joe Biden' over other Democrats

  Yahoo Finance

Painting found in Italian museum wall is stolen Klimt

A painting found stashed inside a wall at an Italian museum has been confirmed as the stolen "Portrait of a Lady" by Austria's Gustav Klimt, prosecutors said on Friday, two decades after the artwork went missing. The century-old painting was discovered concealed in an external wall by gardeners at the Ricci Oddi Gallery of Modern Art in Piacenza, northeast Italy, last month. The museum estimates that the 55-by-65-centimetre (21-by-26-inch) expressionist work could be worth between 60 and 100 million euros ($67-111 million), but notes the difficulty in estimating the work as it has never been sold on the market.

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  Painting found in Italian gallery wall confirmed to be long-lost Klimt

  CBS News
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  Portrait Found in Gallery's Walls Verified as Missing Gustav Klimt Artwork

  Meredith Videos

Revealed: The Secrets Behind Russia's Crazy 100-Megaton Nuclear Torpedo

On November 10, 2015, Russian media accidentally-on-purpose revealed a glimpse into the Kremlin's new underwater weapon—the "Kanyon" or Status-6 nuclear-powered, nuclear-armed drone. The Kanyon UUV (unmanned underwater vehicle) as described and illustrated is a very, very large torpedo almost eighty feet long and five feet in diameter. Fitted with a monstrous 100-megaton nuclear warhead and propelled by a nuclear power plant, Kanyon is designed to create radioactive tsunamis in ports and coastal areas.

TSA issues apology to Native American woman who had braids pulled by agent

The federal Transportation Security Administration has apologized to a Native American woman who said an agent at Minneapolis-St Paul international airport “pulled her braids” and said “giddy up!” when she took a flight from there this week. “The agent said she needed to pat down my braids,” tweeted Tara Houska, an indigenous rights advocate and attorney. According to the Washington Post, women of color have long experienced problems at TSA checkpoints, because natural, braided or twisted hair prompt “flags” on security devices, spurring “more invasive screenings”.

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  TSA agents arrest man with gun at Newark airport; first one of the year

  WABC – NY
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  The TSA apologized after an agent pulled a Native American passenger's braid and said "giddyup!" during a pat down

  INSIDER

An ISIS preacher captured in Iraq was apparently so overweight that police had to take him away in the back of a pickup truck

Twitter/AliBaroodi A well-known ISIS preacher was captured by Iraqi police, but he was apparently so overweight he had to be taken away in the back of a truck. Police said he incited extremist ideology and pledged allegiance to ISIS during their control of Mosul. Pictures posted to social media appear to show al-Nima being put in the back of a pickup truck by Iraqi forces.

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  Truck crashes into Starbucks, 4 hospitalized

  USA TODAY
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  Pickup truck slams into Illinois Starbucks, injuring five people

  CBS News Videos

Rain douses some Australian bush fires but flash floods now threaten wildlife

Heavy rains in fire-ravaged eastern Australia have brought welcome relief for firefighters and farmers, but sparked flash floods that have led to fresh scrambles to save native animals. As the rain hit on Thursday the New South Wales State Emergency Services department warned that the sudden heavy downpours in some areas would bring flash flooding, falling trees and landslides where the fires have wiped out vegetation. On Friday, the warnings were realised when flash floods hit the Australia Reptile Park on the NSW east coast, and the state's koalas - having lost thousands of their number and huge swathes of their habitat - needed to be rescued again as floods thundered down fire-blasted hills empty of vegetation.

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  ‘One-in-100-year’ storms trigger flash flooding in Australia

  The Independent
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  Rain brings joy for Australian firefighters, farmers

  AFP

The Hole in the Impeachment Case

Thought experiment No. 1: Suppose Bob Mueller's probe actually proves that Donald Trump is under Vladimir Putin's thumb. Fill in the rest of the blanks with your favorite corruption fantasy: The Kremlin has video of the mogul-turned-president debauching himself in a Moscow hotel; the Kremlin has a bulging file of real-estate transfers through which Trump laundered racketeering proceeds for Putin's favored mobsters and oligarchs; or Trump is recorded cutting a deal to drop Obama-era sanctions against Putin's regime if Russian spies hack Democratic accounts. Thought experiment No. 2: Adam Schiff is not a demagogue.

Town on edge in Colombia after 5 killed, 2 vehicles burned

A remote town was on edge Friday after at least five people were found shot to death, highlighting Colombia's struggle to bring peace to rural areas where drug crops are abundant and illegal armed groups are active. The killings happened overnight in an isolated part of the Jamundi municipality in southwestern Colombia and also left two vehicles incinerated, officials said. It was the third massacre in Jamundi in the past year.

U.S. sanctions Iranian commander over Mahshahr killings

The U.S. State Department said on Saturday it had imposed sanctions on a general of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who commanded units blamed for a massacre of protesters in November. The U.S. State Department has said previously it had received videos of the Revolutionary Guards opening fire without warning on protesters in Mahshahr county in southwest Iran. On Saturday, it cited "multiple" media reports and information submitted by the Iranians through its Rewards for Justice tipline that units under Brigadier General Hassan Shahvarpour's command killed as many as 148 people when they used armored vehicles to encircle fleeing protesters, firing machine guns into the crowd and set...

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  Iran's supreme leader slams 'clown' Trump, says Iran's missile strikes showed 'the hand of God'

  The Week
• 
  'Days of God': A look at Iran's mounting crises

  Associated Press

Lev Parnas: Rick Perry said he told Ukrainian president aid was contingent on Biden investigation

Lev Parnas, the indicted associate of Rudy Giuliani, told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow in an interview that aired Thursday night that former Energy Secretary Rick Perry was directed by Rudy Giuliani to tell Ukraine its U.S. aid was contingent on the country announcing investigations of former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter. Parnas alleges that after Giuliani made the request, Perry called him back and said he had been in touch with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and conveyed the message.

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  Trump repeatedly denies knowing key impeachment figure despite being photographed with him

  The Independent
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  Docs Show Parnas Helping Nunes Aide Set Up Interviews With Ex-Ukrainian Officials

  The Daily Beast

Former Philippine police chief indicted in drug corruption case

The former chief police enforcer of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte's deadly war on drugs will be charged with corruption for allegedly protecting officers linked to the narcotics trade, the justice department said Thursday. Oscar Albayalde resigned in October after serving as Philippine police chief for more than a year, having presided over an anti-narcotics crackdown that left thousands of drug suspects dead. The episode that led to his sudden fall from grace cast an unwelcome light on a drug war that is immensely popular with Filipinos, but which has faced international criticism over allegations that police were summarily executing suspects.

Secrets Stolen: What Will China Do With Data On Israel's Iron Dome Missile Defense?

Key point: America should be worried. A cybersecurity firm reports that Chinese hackers have stolen technical data for the Iron Dome rocket-defense system from Israeli computers. Maryland-based Cyber Engineering Services detected the cyber burglary, according to cybersecurity writer Brian Krebs.

Pilots sat back and watched a plane take off entirely on its own as Airbus gets one step closer to fully self-flying aircraft

Similar to self-driving cars, the cameras were fitted with technology to recognize the runway so that it could keep a straight path when departing. Alex Davies / Business Insider Wind and other runway hazards such as foreign object debris, or FOD, can potentially knock the aircraft off of the runway's centerline, which requires correction. Pilots must use the aircraft's brakes or the rudder to keep the aircraft on the centerline or risk the aircraft going off the runway's edge.